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HomeMy WebLinkAbout_2005 02 08 City Commission Workshop Minutes CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP FEBRUARY 8, 2005 CALL TO ORDER The Workshop of Tuesday, February 8,2005 of the City Commission was called to order by Mayor John F. Bush at 6:30 p.m. in the Commission Chambers of the Municipal Building (City Hall, 1126 East State Road 434, Winter Springs, Florida 32708). ROLL CALL: Mayor John F. Bush, present Deputy Mayor Michael S. Blake, present Commissioner Robert S. Miller, present Commissioner Donald A. Gilmore, present Commissioner Sally McGinnis, present Commissioner Joanne M. Krebs, present City Manager Ronald W. McLemore, absent City Attorney Anthony A. Garganese, present A moment of silence was held, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. INFORMATIONAL AGENDA INFORMATIONAL 300. Community Development Department Explore Strategies To Satisfy The City Commission's Desire To Adopt A Rural Area Development Plan And Policy. Brief discussion. Ms. Eloise Sahlstrom, AICP, AS LA, Senior Planner, Community Development Department gave a brief overview and welcomed Mr. Randall Arendt and Mr. John E. Fernsler. Ms. Sahlstrom said to the City Commission, "To conclude this evening, we will be able to have a little bit of a discussion from you as to how we should be proceeding, if you could give us some direction on that, we would appreciate it." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP - FEBRUARY 8, 2005 PAGE20F5 Mayor Bush asked, "Eloise - did you notify Seminole County about this Workshop?" Ms. Sahlstrom said, "Yes, we did. I actually had a PT AC (Planning Technical Advisory Committee) Meeting on Friday and took copies of the Agenda and the Agenda Item to the Representatives that were there, and there were Representatives from Oviedo, from several of the other cities, Casselberry, I believe, Maitland, Altamonte Springs as well as Seminole County." Mr. John E. Fernsler, AlA Principal, Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC, 191 Giralda Avenue, Penthouse, Coral Gables, Florida: provided an overview of 'Rural' area developments. Discussion. Mr. Randall Arendt, Greener Prospects, 43 Prospect Avenue, Narragansett, Rhode Island: addressed the City Commission on "Rural Conservation Design". Mr. Arendt presented a Presentation on "Community Planning". With discussion, Mr. Arendt said, "I like to have a Tree Survey for any area where its not wetlands or flood plains." Furthermore, Mr. Arendt stated, "Anything about the property that could be useful as a form giver, I want to know and then I want to have the Staff, the Site Designer, anybody that is voting on the plan and the abutters, do a 'Site Walk'." Tape I/Side B Mr. Arendt continued with his Presentation and stated, "I would advocate for - quality neighborhood design - and quality to me is a lot of very usable user-friendly open space that is visible, is accessible, and increases everybody's quality of life and because of that, increases the property values." With remarks on green space, open space, and Village Greens - Mr. Arendt noted, "This is one of the most progressive communities - I would commend you to become more familiar with what they do in Davidson, North Carolina - it is north of Charlotte. And they have won a number of national awards. They use the 'New Urbanism' in - certain areas of the community and 'Conservation Design' in other areas." Further comments. Tape 2/Side A With comments on the nearby Black Hammock area, Deputy Mayor Michael S. Blake stated, "What I want to do is for the City of Winter Springs to come up with some effective policy that if a landowner were to voluntarily annex into the City of Winter Springs from this designated area if you will, or even perhaps if the landowner already has annexed into the City of Winter Springs in this designated area - how will we put together an effective plan if you will, to allow development to maintain the development standards that are currently in place or to simply not allow it to develop to any greater use than where it is." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FWRIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP - FEBRUARY 8, 2005 PAGE 3 OF 5 Furthermore, Deputy Mayor Blake said, "But if it were to go that direction, if the property is going to be developed at some point in time, I would rather be in front of the curve and have some methodology that we employed to protect the character to the extent possible." Discussion. Commissioner Robert S. Miller said, "I would very much like to pursue some of the issues that you've raised here today with them in kind of a joint discussion on how we are going to develop all of the County lands." Then, Commissioner Miller stated, "Some of the things you have presented here tonight I would love to see us pursue more in detail, that being, if a landowner, even within the City of Winter Springs has let's say, ten (10) acres - if we could create a legislation, an Ordinance that says you can have so many units per acre on that property, but the City preserves the right to itself to bunch that up into a certain area - or areas so that you in effect end up with what you presented here tonight, which is open areas that just will remain green forever." Commissioner Miller added, "I would be interested in hearing more from you, not necessarily tonight, but then you could bring it up with the City Manager on ways that other towns have done this in other areas ofthe country, so that the first time we do this we don't get taken to Court." Furthermore, Commissioner Miller remarked, "I would love to see us be able to create an Ordinance that gives us an oversight on large pieces of property that may come up for development in the future where we can force the Developer to back away from this one (1) unit per acre, ifits ten (10) acres, and that is what we have set aside - that is what it is zoned as." With discussion, Commissioner Miller noted, "That is an item I would like to see you help us with." Additionally, Commissioner Miller then stated, "How do we craft an Ordinance, a law, that at least puts them on notice that we are going to push this principle?" Mr. Arendt commented that "It is the County's adherence to this notion that we will achieve those results by hanging on to our large lots - that has to be overcome." Regarding related data, Mr. Arendt said, "Studies have been done in many parts of the country and they've all concluded that that large lot, low density - and development simply doesn't pay for itself." With further discussion, Commissioner Miller stated, "If you could give us some ideas along these lines that I have asked - I would appreciate it." Tape 2/Side B Further discussion. CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP - FEBRUARY 8,2005 PAGE 4 OF 5 With further discussion on growth, Mayor Bush said, "In our situation, as Commissioner Miller mentioned - we are pretty well getting close to build-out in terms of land that is currently in the City. Now you can say - more land might be annexed. It seems like - Winter Springs, Oviedo and the County are going to have to work together to come up with a plan that reflects some of the ideas that you presented and we just can't say it's going to be Winter Springs - by itself." Mayor Bush added, "Oviedo, Winter Springs and probably maybe Sanford and the County have to get together to do this, not just Winter Springs." Mr. Arendt said, "I would expect the Developers are building what the Code allows them; and the Code probably says you can get 'X' number of units per acre and the open space requirement is rather small. So, their open space probably consists of unbuildable wetlands and the Stormwater detention areas because the Code hasn't raised the bar of excellence beyond that low level. I never blame a Developer for doing a bad job because he's following the rules, unless he's doing a particularly bad job and not even living up to the rules or cutting down the trees that he is not supposed to cut down. But, if he is basically following the rules then, as Mayor Bush said - the enemy is us. We need to look to see where rules are consistent with our vision as enunciated already in the existing Comprehensive Plan document." With discussion on the Black Hammock area, Mr. Arendt said, "You get much better development when you aggregate the parcels as opposed to trying to do a good conservation subdivision on this sixty-one (61) acre piece of this 218 acre Hammock. So, to the extent possible, I would work with the landowners there to encourage them to merge their lands for the purposes of conservation and development. You probably want to make sure that the Zoning density is appropriate for the level of conservation that you want. If you want a level of conservation that is more like sixty-five percent (65%) then you're really going to want to have - multi-acre Zoning; the three (3) acres zoning would work well." Discussion. Commissioner Joanne M. Krebs stated, "Now we know better. So, I would ask the Commissioners, what's our next step? What do we do?" Discussion ensued on the Town Center concept. Deputy Mayor Blake added, "I think the first step is to make the determination which we cannot do tonight, this is a Workshop - to make the determination as to - whether or not to accept the scope of work that has been offered to us this evening from these well- learned Consultants or whether to shop around and speak to some other professionals." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP - FEBRUARY 8,2005 PAGE50F5 Additionally, Deputy Mayor Blake said, "Mayor, I think what we need to do is take what we have learned, consider it over the next week and the next week when we meet in a Regular Meeting, either take some action at that point in time, either to follow along with the direction that we have got, or to look elsewhere." Commissioner Krebs suggested, "I would like to see us when we further develop, to be sensitive to the environment." Discussion ensued on guest parking and fire safety needs. Commissioner Sally McGinnis stated, "What's hopeful for me and because we are almost built out - we still have the opportunity to not continue everything we've done in the past so that we are not just a highway of gates and walls and that is very hopeful." With further discussion, Mr. Arendt stated, "A Workshop for Developers and their Site Designers I think would be appropriate at some point down the road when you get to the stage where you're talking about - real Ordinance language." Ms. Sahlstrom introduced the incoming new Community Development Department Director, Mr. Randy Stevenson. Brief discussion. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Bush adjourned the Workshop at approximately 9:18 p.m. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: ANDREA LORENZO-LUACES, CMC L~ L. BROWN PUTY CITY CLERK